Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Hallowe'en! Grim Fandangal!

Happy Hallowe'en, my friends! I hope your weekend is ghoulishly good! 
L called my look "Grim Fandangal", which is a play off Grim Fandango, a PC game I used to have that had a wonderful Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) design.


  • Dress - handmade, no label, vintage 60s; last worn here for Hallowe'en 2011
  • Shoes - Half Truth Veda, Fluevog; last seen here for our rock & roll holiday earlier this month

I also wore my fluffy Noa Noa underskirt to give the dress more volume on the bottom - I twirled all over the office.
Pretty standard easy costume.

Add a wig and Vizzini looks at me cautiously.
"Must eat that flower."
This costume actually worked pretty well to function through a work day - I always have to wear my glasses too, so I have to factor that in.
I had a few odd looks while I walked around town
The stuff:
Wonderful shoes. I walked to and from town in them.

Spooky bling:
I wore four spiders!

  • Leather obi - thrifted
  • Rose - Le Chateau
  • Cuffs - Jezebel Charms, gift from L
  • Spider ring - homegrown vintage c. 1986, gift from Mom and Dad
  • Teeny spider stud - gift from Marian
  • Spider earrings - gift from Cindy


If you're interested in how I did my make-up, which was easily the most elaborate part of my costume, get ready for some giant pictures of my face. I did a test run last night to make sure I could do my complicated make-up, and I took pictures as I went along.

Hey if you're not interested, then run away now  - giant pictures of my face!

I didn't really have time for a costume, so aside from pulling stuff out of my regular clothes, I thought I could do a more fun thing and paint my face. I've been watching Face Off, and got all inspired.
I really liked this picture that I found. I had this cool glittery make-up palette that I thought could work, and I bought this two-ended felt/brush eyeliner to make it easier. The eyeliner (Marcelle) was excellent - it was waterproof, so I had no smudging all day, even through lunch. The glitter was horrible.

I started with a clean face and my hair pulled back, and put on a light base of white.
My skeptical face
I hated the feel of the white, but I soldiered on.

I used the brush side to start outlining, to get a feel for the balance on my face.
From there, I tried adding glitter to it, and it was the worst, goopiest stuff ever! I had to scrub my face clean and start over.
Muah-mwah.

Then I tried to shade around my eyes with eye shadow.
Did not like this.

Start over - bare face with some BB cream and powder, not white stuff, and hell, let's try the thick felt tip, shall we?
Hey-oh! Yes, this is much better. The more you try, the more the more you see what works and what doesn't.

I added some shading with grey eyeshadow.
If one eye works on the test run, no need to waste pen on the second eye. I tried this toothy mouth.

Not quite me - how about a little bow mouth?
Oh, yes, I think we are ready!

This is what I used:
My Rimmel BB cream followed by MAC Studio Fix powder for a nice smooth finish. I drew on my face with the felt-tip end, shaded with my MAC dark grey eyeshadow (spider web and jawline), plus a bit of blue from my MAC Toledo special edition blue for the flower on my chin. All reds supplied by a nice matt lip gloss (I forget which one).

Et viola!
A totally fun make-up look in less than half an hour. Thank goodness for the test run!

10 comments:

  1. Oh wow that makeup is incredible! Such a great costume, well done!

    It's nice you shared the process and what did and didn't work too - often people make it look so easy like they mastered it on the first go, not sharing all the fun they had along the way.

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  2. Thanks for the tutorial! You look scary-fabulous and I love Vizzini's puzzled face. xox

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  3. Sheila, your Halloween costumes are the best. Every year something new and interesting. You do not disappoint.
    Thanks for the makeup run-through - the error part of your trial is really useful, and the shading you used is brilliant.
    It's funny that you had only a "few odd looks" - just goes to show that you can pretty much wear ANYthing and the sky won't fall down. People here too hardly glanced at people in costume. Why is that?

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  4. That's a gorgeous frock and I LOVE the make-up - great job! xxx

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  5. Wow! What a great costume. Love the makeup. Didn't even recognize you.

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  6. What a great look for El Dia de los Muertos! I am going to reference this in a week when I hopefully will do something fun for Tucson's huge annual parade for this holiday.

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  7. What an off-the-charts awesome costume and makeup job. You look too cool and festively lovely for words!!!

    ♥ Jessica

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  8. Nice work on the skull makeup - I did a sugar skull makeup two years ago for halloween and it was a lot of fun, as I was totally unrecognizable.

    That is such a pretty dress - you need to wear it as your regular self!

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  9. You did an amazing job with your make up - and like the previous commenter said: wear that dress in real life" it rocks.

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